The Gate of the Year

As another civil year reaches its end, let's bring the curtain down on 2012 with the church's age-old tradition for New Year's Eve – thanks for the cycle just past, our lot's great song of praise....



Closer to home, meanwhile, as at least some of this crowd are aware, in the streets around the shop the joyful noise is just slightly different, and doesn't get going until sunrise tomorrow:



...and, of course, release the wenches:


While much of the world might be back in the saddle on Wednesday, lest it wasn't already clear from the preceding, not this part.

Lastly for now, it bears recalling that, as ever, the Catholicverse's 2013 begins with a prayer for peace – tomorrow marks the 46th World Day of Peace, instituted by the newly-Venerable Paul VI in 1968. 

Ergo, to bring the two traditions together, church, let us pray....


In 2013 and always, folks, may each and all of you, those you love and those you serve know every gift of grace, joy, health and goodness. May our longing world find ever more the gift of peace... and most of all, may we work to attain the blessings of peace and unity within this splintered, wounded Body.

Buon Anno a tutti... Feliz Año Nuevo – a blessed and Happy New Year from our home to yours!


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